What is recorded here
Fairy fort in Mossgrove, County Cork: a low earthen ring, about nine tens of a metre across and nearly a metre high, still holding its shape in tillage on a south-east-facing slope. The ground inside dips south, and a man-made passage runs underground beneath the floor, as if the fort kept a hidden room for rain, heat, fear or secret visits. People may have lived there, buried goods there, or simply avoided the hole because the dark under a fairy name sounds like more than soil.
In tillage, on SSE-facing slope. Roughly circular area (39.5m N-S; 34m E-W) enclosed by low earthen bank (H 0.9m). Interior slopes down to S. Man-made underground passage (CO096-090--) in interior. (Ó Ríordáin 1931, 62).
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009
A fairy fort or earthen ringfort in Mossgrove, likely dating to the early medieval period, features a low earthen bank and an interior slope with a man-made underground passage. Local tradition associates such sites with fairy folklore, reflecting their perceived otherworldly significance in Irish cultural memory.
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
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